DISTRICT COURT EXPLAINED THE PECULIARITIES OF RECOVERY OF DAMAGES FROM THE BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE

The Arbitration court of the Urals District considered the complaint of the former bankruptcy trustee of the debtor in the case of recovering losses from him.  The applicant applied to the court with a demand to recognize the previously issued order to recover the losses in connection with the return of part of the property to the bankruptcy estate as executed, but the lower courts unanimously rejected his claim.

The issue of recovering losses from the trustee, considered within the framework of the debtor's bankruptcy, arose due to the loss of part of the debtor's property. The bankruptcy case of the company was sequentially led by several anti-crisis managers.

During the work of the applicant, the bankruptcy estate decreased: the trustee received one amount of property, and transferred a smaller part to the next anti-crisis manager.

This difference formed the basis of the court decision to recover losses from the bankruptcy trustee.

However, after the claims were satisfied, it turned out that part of the property had been found, which was the reason for the trustee’s appeal to the court.

Having refused to satisfy the claim, the courts of the first and the appeal instances agreed that the judicial act, nevertheless, could not be considered executed. In addition, the judges pointed out that there was no evidence that it was thanks to the actions of the applicant that the property returned to the bankruptcy estate.

However, the district court expressed a different opinion on this matter.

The Board drew attention of colleagues to the fact that when recovering losses from the trustee, one should have taken into account the real damage caused to the debtor's property, including in the case of its obvious decrease.

Consequently, it can be considered erroneous to conclude that the partial return of the debtor's property lost during the applicant's work as a bankruptcy trustee does not affect the amount of losses to be recovered from him (decision № F09-11466 / 16 of June 30, 2021 in the case № A60-42177/2009).